


her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

by lessthandivine (lovinglydarling)



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Character Study, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27911242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovinglydarling/pseuds/lessthandivine
Summary: carol and therese share a cigarette on christmas eve.but remember when I moved in you / and the holy dove was moving too / and every breath we drew was hallelujah…
Relationships: Carol Aird/Therese Belivet
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

Exhaling a plume of smoke, Carol takes the cigarette from her lips, absently handing it to Therese. She accepts it, hands somehow warm despite the cold, and inhales, in that delicate, breathless way that she always does. Glancing out across the water, it seems to Carol that the river would never end, thousands of houses and cities lining the banks, rushing into foreign lands. Carol looks back at Therese, who’s kicking her feet in the delicate day-old snowfall, the wisp of a smile on her face as she takes another drag.

“What’re you thinking?”

Therese’s wide eyes meet Carol’s, not an ounce of worry in them. She breaks away for a moment, handing the cigarette back as she scans the area, no doubt searching for anyone else on a Christmas Eve night stroll.

“Nothing, really,” Therese starts, that shy smile flickering across her visage. “I’m just… glad to be here. With you.” She shrugs, and it’s Carol’s turn to smile. It’s the certain, confident motion that’s a newfound grace to her. She no longer has to hide, no longer has to perform, no longer has to be anything but herself for anyone.

“Me too, dearest.” The distant city lights blur and split through the smoke, and Carol feels Therese grasp her hand for a split second, letting go and stepping away casually. A warmth blooms through her chest, and she’s suddenly so, so _happy_ that she chose what she did. Never, Carol thinks, would she ever give this up again. She was right, that day, that she’d never be alright if she was only half herself.

The wind picks up, and powder drifts in the air. Therese tilts her head back, a joyful grin spreading across her face, and Carol thinks it’s beautiful in it’s familiarity and freeness. “Carol, it’s snowing.”

“It is.” Carol watches Therese skip forward on the bridge, boots making little prints, scarf trailing behind her. Flicking some of the fresh snow off her coat, she follows Therese, watching the young woman bound before her, spinning around as the snow falls harder and harder, draping over her shoulders like feathered wings. Therese’s laugh, light and soft, seems to echo throughout the empty space as she twirls, her figure distinct but made hazy by the drifting flakes.

Carol feels at once untethered to the world yet so solidly present, as if she’s never been more fragile, never been more invincible at the same time. It’s an uninhibited emotion, she finds, open in a way she’d never let herself be. Her memories flicker back to that moment in the restaurant, when her eyes had lifted from her lighter to Therese’s across the table.

“I love you.” The words come out, muffled by the whirling of the snow, swirled wind whipping the tresses around Carol’s ears, the coattails around Carol’s ankles. She knows Therese can’t quite hear her, not when she’s so far away, but it doesn’t matter. The words hang around her, and she’s said them as much for herself as she has for Therese—she knew that the chance she took, the choice she made that night, had changed their lives forever.

Therese rushes up to her, grinning so wide and Carol’s never seen anything more lovely. “What did you say?”

A toll sounds in the distance, and Carol takes Therese’s hands, still warm without gloves. Maybe it was the season, Carol muses, that every year, this time reminds her of Therese, and makes her so much more grateful that they exist together now.

“My angel.” At her words, Therese glances down, her cheeks, already rosy from the cold, grow pinker, but Carol doesn’t stop. “I love you.” She drops the cigarette, encircling her arms around Therese’s waist under her coat, and pulls her in so they’re flush against each other. Knowing that she’s grown into the certainty that she’d carried herself with all this time, Carol finally presses her lips to Therese’s. Feeling her lover start to tremble slightly, hands grasping the lapels of her jacket, Carol tasted snow, she tasted smoke, she tasted familiarity. They broke apart.

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos, comments, concrit welcome :)
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://lessthandivine.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> please do not repost, reproduce, copy, or take from my work in any way without express permission. thank you!


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